Roburt

From the start of the R&R era right through to 1964, the US just about had things all their own way; pop music wise. It was US artists that dominated record sales right around the world. At the time, UK acts experienced very little commercial success in the US and so were no opposition to American pop / R&B acts. BUT after the Beatles broke thru in the States in December 63 & particularly after the group had been on the Ed Sullivan show, all things British became the new big thing there (music, fashion, cars, accent, films, etc.). This caused massive problems for the US immigration service, who pressurised by the US music biz to help US singers / musicians, banned lots of UK acts from visiting the US for promotional purposes or to play live gigs. Not liking this situation, the UK government responded by banning many US acts from entering the UK. With countries all around the world now booking more & more UK acts and 45's by British acts topping the charts everywhere, US officials could see they were onto a big loser. HOWEVER, before sense prevailed, some US music people stepped forward to back up the Brits (& so, give support to their acts who wanted to go to the UK to perform). In the end sense prevailed & a DEAL was arrived at. For each UK act allowed into the US, a US act had to be allowed to come to the UK. This agreement worked well for UK R&B / soul fans as most insipid US pop acts were now dead in the water here. The answer for US record companies, who had UK acts on their books via licensing agreements, was to team one of their soul acts with one of their UK pop acts and thus meet the terms of the US / UK working agreement. So many American soul acts came over here to play British mod / soul clubs while acts such as the Hollies, Searchers, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Dave Clark Five went the other way. I know it served their own ends, but it was nice to see that Motown was to the fore in trying to influence US government policy in 1965 ...

There are quite a number of 'covers' that I like. Not too many decent Beatle's songs covers on the soul side but I do like E,W&F's attempt + Syretta's effort too. For me, Jose Feliciano was at his best on covers -- his take on "Golden Lady" is just sublime. One song that never really did it for me was "Pony Time" -- that certainly inspired quite a few cover versions in very quick succession after Don Covay's group's original effort ...

A few bits (below) to help back up the fact that it was indeed the real VIBRATIONS that toured here back in the 60's ... they were renowned for their high energy stage moves, being great dancers ... one of the jpegs is a pic of them on stage @ the Dungeon in Nottingham. One fact that led lots of folk to believe that they weren't the real group was that 'fake group' supremo Roy Tempest ran lots of their UK tours. But these tours took place way before he started with his 'fake group' phase -- ahead of that he always brought over the genuine article. Their Dec 67 released 45 ("Talkin About Love") was a UK only effort (2 old tracks); specially released here on Columbia by EMI to tie in with the tour they were undertaking at the time.

Bought the Precisions as a new UK release back in late 1967 .... can't say I ever remember playing the B side.

I'll nominate .... O' Jays - Working On Your Case / Hold On Bobby Bland – Call On Me / That's The Way Love Is Edwin Starr – I Am The Man For You Baby / My Weakness Is You Bud Harper – Mr. Soul / Let Me Love You The Steinways – My Heart's Not In It Anymore / You've Been Leadin' Me On PLUS there's loads more that have a great dance side + a great deep side on the same single.

A bit more info on the Cutlass set-up ... Floyd Morris (from Chicago) had a 45 out on Cutlass, produced by Bunky Sheppard. Before this 45 he'd played on recordings with Johnny Pate's band and had 45's out working with the likes of Jack Daniels. Tom Tom Washington, etc.).

Anyone have the full info on this Nashville label; or at least ... on it's soul output (being from Nashville, it also put out C&W stuff). It was started up in late 71 or early 72 and by the end of 73 was gone (due to the prosecution of it's execs for bootlegging). Seems the guys who ran the company were Charles Shafer & Billy Carr. They started out with just the Cutlass Record label and then added the Hot Line label especially for their soul stuff. They obviously had a wide outlook as they were soon teamed with John Abbey / Trojan Records here in the UK, with lots of their tracks being released here on Action. The Martha Turner tracks were cut around April 71 in the Jack Clement Studios in Nashville, so her 45 has to be one of their 1st releases (though it states on the label 1972; Custom Recording Co, 16th Ave Nashville -- arranged by Billy Carr). The 73 piece on the labels says that Custom Recording was based in North Augusta, Sth Carolina. . . . . ALSO lots of their product seems to be 'bought-in tracks, rather than self produced. Anyone know how the Cutlass / Trojan tie up came about -- maybe via B&S and John Abbey ? If I remember right; I got some Cutlass / Hot Line 45's in a Contempo (B&S) soul pack around 73-ish.

Yes, Kegsy told me that his Bostock 45 sales @ the niters financed his buys of stuff (!) for a good while.

Kegsy has been in touch & has given me the full run down (just about the same as Rick stated above; but more detailed). I didn't realise Bostocks also had a multitude of 45's on Okeh, Wand, Ric Tic, ABC, Chess, Checker & loads of other labels too. Though I was getting Chess / Checker 45 stuff (& Stax / Volt / Motown) from B&S / Contempo back then (72-ish).

I've been pointed in the direction of this podcast ... COLIN CURTIS & TIM ASHIBENDE TRIBUTE TO KEITH MINSULL SHOW NORTHERN SOUL HISTORY HITMIX RADIO 107.5FM www.podomatic.com/podcasts/colincurtis/episodes/2023-01-23T03_56_29-08_00 I've given it a listen & it seems the Stoke crew were heading over to Bradford in summer 73 to buy from Bostocks.

I largely stopped 'chasing' 60's US import 45's after 1971, being more interested in newer stuff that you didn't have to send away for to the US or head off miles to go crate digging in some record dealers premises. So I never made it to Bostocks in Bradford market. Of course, with the size of their haul, you'd find some of the 45's they'd brought over here in all sorts of weird places -- 2nd hand shops / Sunday market stalls / local supermarkets (the Boyes chain; Hull, York, etc branches). When I came across any in such premises, of course, I'd sort through them & buy any I was interested in. But I never got to witness the 'mother load' back in their original UK location. They were sold so cheap at that time (5p each ?; around double that in a sold-on shop) that even if some of those singles were unknown back then, you'd still take a punt if the producer / song writer / artist name looked promising. It seems many top sounds came out of the market there and initially went on to be sold for a substantial mark-up to those not in the know. MY QUESTION ... it must have seemed that you'd be able to find any MGM / Verve soul 45 in quantity back then, so paying the pre-Bostock's going-rate must have seemed pointless for a while. BUT, many Verve 45's -- Howard Guyton – "I Watched You Slowly Slip Away" for instance -- managed to retain it's sought-after status & still go for a hefty wad. SO, which collectable MGM / Verve 45's didn't turn up in quantity in the Bostock's haul and is it known why they didn't ? Were the copies of the 'rarer' items on Bradford market (Howard Guyton for instance) issues / demos or a mix of both ?. Obviously, there was always pent-up demand from niter-goers for the Howard Guyton single, otherwise it wouldn't have been booted back in the 70's. How soon after it started getting plays was it booted & how did that tie in (date-wise) with the Bostock's haul ? Are the details of where Bostock's got their haul from known -- record company warehouse stock or from a big US record warehouse ?

No NOla folk on that list ... a major omission .. Allen Toussaint should at least figure in the standings. He was writing top songs from 1961 right thru to the 70's.

A tale posted on FACEBOOK by Neil Rushton ... GETTING LUCKY @ a 'cheapie' UK 45 seller ... . . . . . I found my first copy (of LOU RAGLAND'S "I Travel Alone") in the late 1970s. At the time I was running a Soul records wholesale business in funky Walsall and was always looking for stock. Most of it came from the U.S.A but other suppliers were much closer, especially Oldies Unlimited at St.Georges near Telford. Bill Baker and myself used to regularly nip down the A5 to deal with Anthony Lewis, the owner, who was great but quirky (for instance if I asked for x amount of copies of a single Anthony would invariably count out so many inches rather than count the amount). Oldies Unlimited imported huge amounts of records from the USA and Bill and myself would buy quantities of recent promos, cut outs and sometimes quite astonishing finds (best ever was 200 copies of Bill Brandon “The Streets Got My Lady”. Everyone on the Soul scene was aware of Anthony but he was always good to me as I had been buying from him by mail order when I was at school when he was based in Kent (?)and he often mentioned that. Anyway one afternoon he told Bill and myself that we would be allowed to look for records in one of the former chapels in the grounds of his base. We were met by a carpet of records on the floor and shelves full of them on the side. We started wading through and found some good stuff but nothing amazing, not all the singles were Soul. Anyway I slipped while reaching for the shelves and ended up lying on my back on top of the deep pile of records covering the floor, Naturally as I pulled myself up I pulled a handful records from where my right hand had landed. Two out of three were county and western, and the third - a stone mint copy of “I Travel Alone” - Lou Ragland. To add to the shock only either demos or issues (I can’t remember which)had turned up in the UK by then and the copy in my hand was the format that was unknown at the time.

A pic taken in the radio room @ Prestatyn ... me interviewing Ray Pollard & Swamp Dogg while John Poole watches on. I did the artist radio interviews each year. So I did the interviews with Lou Pride & Don Gardner in 2003. Lou had travelled over to the UK with a Severn Records label exec (Lou was recording for Severn at the time). Lou & his record label guy, being so close to Liverpool while in Prestatyn, wanted to go up there to visit the Beatles Museum. So I took them + Don Gardner up there (on the Saturday morning if my memory ain't playing tricks on me). Got to have long chats with em all, especially with Don who just came along for the ride (he wasn't interested in going in the Beatles Museum). So Don & I hung around while the other two went all Merseybeat. Had a fascinating chat with Don about his time in Sweden in the 60's + about the period in the 70's when he was Curtis Mayfield's travelling tour manager. Lou also had a few tales to tell, the one with the funniest ending being the story about how he came to write "Coming Home In The Morning". I obviously didn't take the pic in the radio room (as I'm in it), so it was most likely Snapper who took it (on my camera or on his own).

It's just been announced that Pontin's Prestatyn has closed & will not reopen. So the days of Soul Weekenders there ( & everything else) are definitely over.

A US radio stn down in Florida. This outfit kept it's full signal strength up over the full 24 hour period. I guess it's signal (at night) would reach some of the Caribbean islands.

I bet it went like this ...

Nickie Lee was already with WAME in 1963 ... each week the WAME DJ's would pick their choice of the week's releases to plug (he picks 45's by Jimmy Holiday & George Freeman below). ALSO reggae was always popular in Miami; Nickie Lee cut a cover of a Prince Buster song ahead of "Black Is Beautiful".

A pic of Miami stn WAME's DJ's in 1966 ... Nickie Lee being one of them ...

A number of guys in the music biz moved around a lot; so a small portion of their work would have taken place in Detroit. I'm thinking of the likes of Sidney Barnes & Gene Dozier but there are others that either started out in Detroit & then moved on OR who passed through Detroit, making a short stop there. I've always been fascinated by Hamilton Bohannon, who for the 2nd half of the 60's led the Motown touring band and developed long lasting friendships with the likes of Carolyn Crawford. Although he was born in Georgia, he had moved to Detroit in the early 60's. He then hooked up with Stevie Wonder & via Stevie with Motown. When Choker Campbell quit the Motown team, Hamilton took his place as band leader. Motown left him behind in Detroit, so he took his band elsewhere -- to Chicago based Dakar and started having big hits with them. Was he ever allowed to record anything in his own right or arrange any Hitsville studio sessions at Motown; would seem strange if he didn't. I could also never work out if he cut any of his 70's tracks in Detroit.

Love going through old US R&B radio stn charts. It's amazing what 'obscurities' you find lurking on them. Of course, if you have an interest in what was on their charts, it spills out to include who their DJ's were, did those DJ's run their own little labels, what area a stn would broadcast to (how far their signal reached) & similar associated topics. There are quite a few decent books out there by old soul radio DJ's or by guys in the know about US black radio. It's a pity those halcyon days are long gone -- I just about never bother to tune into any US radio stns when we have been wintering down in Florida for the last 10 years. ANYWAY, back to my point. Radio stns such as Nashville based WLAC had night time R&B shows -- their DJ's including Gene Nobles, John Richbourg and "Hoss" Allen. Their signal would reach right up to the US / Canadian border at night, so folk who liked soul would tune in from hundreds of miles away. A radio stn that was quite influential over on the west coast was KSOL (Syl Stewart being one of their DJ's for a short while). I'm posting below, some tech info on the stn. Also one of their charts & a 45 that was on the chart (though as it was on a small NY based label, no idea why it would have figured on a west coast radio stn's chart). MY QUESTION ... KSOL reduced it's signal strength at night from 1000 watts to 250 watts. No doubt, this was also coz the signal reached farther at night, so it didn't need to be as strong. BUT why do radio signals reach much further at night ?? It doesn't seem that logical to me (unless it's coz the atmospherics are so much better after sunset).

Some great pics from SNAPPER there. Brought back many memories (as they say; a picture is worth 1000 words). A pic of the Macce crowd (though Glen's not in it), a better bunch you couldn't wish to meet. I've put it up again along with one of mine, two of them down front waiting for the acts to come on stage (& Glen is in this one) ...

OVER 20 YEARS HAS NOW PASSED and our memories are fading fast ... Midnight Hour UK Soul Weekenders were great (despite the state of the chalets) ... so (if it's OK with Mike ) thought I'd post this piece up here. I wrote it at the time the event took place Midnight Hour UK Soul Weekender -- 2003 . . . . The weather was fine, the location admirable and with 2000 other like minded soul fans also in attendance, this weekender promised much. Proceedings kicked off in the main northern soul room at 7pm Friday and went non-stop through till 2am Monday morning. With 4 different music rooms on offer plus a 24 hr radio station, finding time to eat and sleep was no easy task. The atmosphere soon built up as Friday evening ebbed away but the night’s big event took place just after 1am in the modern soul room. Ann Nesby, the ex lead singer of the Sounds of Blackness now pursuing a solo career, hit the stage with backing from a select band of UK musicians and singers. This lady, with her long apprenticeship in the gospel world, has all the vocal power & skill anyone could need and then some. She knew what was expected of her as she delighted the appreciative crowd with old favourites such as “Pressure” and “I’m Goin All The Way”. Moving on to songs included on her recent solo album, she was joined on stage by her husband who, taking the part of Al Green, helped her perform “Put It On Paper”. “Let Your Will Be Done”, "Tonight’s the Night", "Let It Be" (?) then followed before she finished off with "In The Spirit". All too soon the performance was over, but not before Ann had abandoned the stage to roam around amongst her ecstatic audience on the dance floor. So live performance wise, Friday’s show had truly got the proceedings off to be a brilliant start. Responsibilities were now passed to an earlier generation as the 60’s singers were handed the batten for the main entertainment on Saturday. The scene was set around 4pm as Don Gardner, Gwen Owens and lastly Lou Pride joined me to undergo a verbal grilling on one of my weekender radio shows. All three seemed in good spirits and appeared to be fully charged up for their impending performances. With so much to do and so many old friends to catch up with, time just flew by and a number of important DJ spots were missed in both the main 60’s and modern soul rooms. However amongst the top sounds featured were Ralph Graham “She Just Sits There”, the Passions “If You See My Baby” and Arthur Willis & Soul Dynamics “Hurting Is Over” in the 60’s room, plus Dante Thomas "Never Give Up", R Kelly “Step In Name of Love" and Incognito "Can't Get You Out of My Head" in the modern room. As midnight approached, the local backing band kicked proceedings off on the main room stage via an introductory instrumental number (“Tune Up”). With Andy Rix acting as MC, Lou Pride bounced onto stage. Now the stage area in Pontins main event room is truly massive and it takes a mighty big man to command it. Lou Pride is however such a big man, both physically, vocally and in terms of presence. With the crowd in the palm of his hand, he roamed the entire area available to him whilst delivering near perfect versions of “Your Love Is Fading”, “Love For My Baby“ and ”Bringing Me Back Home” (one of his 2002 recordings). The crowd were fully behind him in every way by now but as he broke into a monologue about being back home they got the message and simply erupted as the familiar opening notes of “I’m Comin Home In The Mornin” rang out. Lou is still a regular live performer back in the US and all his experience shone through as he carried everyone in the room with him to the end of his allotted numbers. The show had been extremely well organised and even before the cheers for Lou had died away Don Gardner was centre stage commencing his opening number. Don is now in his seventies and so wasn’t able to pull off as mobile a performance as Lou had just delivered. He was however still equipped with all the necessary vocal ability to do his 30 year old numbers full justice. He opened with his rare 45 anthem Cheatin Kind” and followed this with “Is This Really Love”. Next came “My Baby Likes To Boogaloo”, a song that recreates just about the best of the 60’s dance crazes. Don seemed extremely happy as the audience fully surrendered to him. Next up was ex-Detroiter Gwen Owens who had fetched her son and daughter along to provide backing vocals. I had met Gwen earlier in the day and she had appeared to be a quiet and thoughtful lady. On stage she was simply transformed and dressed to the nines came across as a true diva. She opened with her 1973 recording “You Better Watch Out” and followed this with a un-issued 60’s Golden World track “Hit & Run”. The crowd had been waiting in anticipation for a particular track and as the band and Gwen broke into “Say You're Wanted & Needed” the mass soul clapping signalled that the wait was over. Lou Pride and Don Gardner now returned to the stage and performed a duet on Lou’s “I’m Comin Home In Morning”, then it was time for Gwen to repeat “...Wanted and Needed”. She then surprised the assembled horde by breaking into a version of the old northern soul anthem “Time Will Pass You By” and to say she did the song full justice is an understatement. It was now finale time and with all three artists on stage they improvised lyrics over the refrain of “Tune Up” (the entire line-up on stage even included a few of the DJ’s, helping out with vocal duties). An extremely slick show, due in large measure to the expertise of the backing band, was thus concluded and the crowd gradually thinned in the main room. A quick recovery was however necessary, as was a change of scenery. People migrated down to the modern soul room and at 2am live proceedings kicked off there. First up was FER recording group Headquarters and to say that their Anjelai Anuford is extremely pleasing on the eye is just stating the obvious. Luckily for those devotees of vocal prowess in the audience, the ladies vocal skills match her physical beauty. Thus we were treated to renditions of “I Want U”, “Set Your Spirit Free”, “Come To My World” and “Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me”. Label-mate Gary Des-Etages was up next and although a bit constrained by the use of backing tapes, he treated us to “Dance With Me”, “U Don’t Try To Change Me”, “No Compromise”, “Too Much To Loose” and finished off with a rousing version of “Glow of Love”. By now my energy had completely ebbed away and so I retired to the tranquillity of my bed. Sunday dawned much too soon and in no time at all it was time to head back into the modern soul room for a PA from Lou Pride. Lou’s Sunday show was set-up to showcase his recent recordings. Thus he opened with the title track of his most recent album, “Words of Caution”. The deep soul gem “You Are My Rainbow” was executed in perfect fashion, so much so that DJ Ivor Jones was moved to jump onto the stage to shake Lou’s hand as he finished the song. “It’s A Good Thing” came next and then Lou once again sang “Bringin Me Back Home”. Even though the crowd was much smaller than that which had witnessed him render it on Saturday, the reaction was still warm enough to prompt a repeat interpretation. The weekend was now winding down towards its end, so what overall impressions had I been left with. Firstly Pontins great organisational efforts, together with the friendliness of their staff and security personnel. Some great live performances, good music on disc and the camaraderie of all the soul fans in attendance. Heck, you even get served decent food in the site restaurant and the chalets are warm and inviting. Roll on next year, but it will be a big challenge for them to equal the success of this year’s event. Got loads of photos from the event, but I'd have to look them out. My memory is failing me but this video shows that Don Gardner returned just 12 months later ..

The 45 off the album ...

Mike, can you recall where you found the message from G A Taylor (above). He's talking about being at the Wheel with the guy I went to the Wheel with -- Donny's Tom Sleight (now back on the scene and attending the Brid NS Weekenders). ANYWAY, if it's the lad I remember, G A Taylor was from Hull (us Donny lads would go to Hull lots of weekends as they had a get social scene there). If he is the guy I believe he is, he was from Hull and emigrated to Canada around 1968. After a while there, he started to work for / with Martin Koppel. It makes sense that the two would get together as I think they were from the same area (Goole / Hull). Anyway, around 1970/ 71, I used to write to Koppel to get US 45's off him. With one order I got a little note from the ex-Hull guy who remembered me from the Hull / Mojo / Wheel days. It had to be G A Taylor (even though he doesn't state in his bit above that he was from Hull).